Tie plate bearing anchor



Feb. 6, 1962 J. H. LIEBENTHAL 3,019,988

TIE PLATE BEARING ANCHOR Filed Aug. 15, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORI Feb. 6, 1962 J. H. LIEBENTHAL 3,019,988

TIE PLATE BEARING ANCHOR Filed Aug. 15, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

United States, PatentO 3,01%,988 TIE PLATE BEARING ANCHOR John H. Liebenthal, Homewood, Ill., assignor to Poor 3: Company, Chicago, 151., a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 15, 196i), Ser. No. 49,557

6 Ciaims. (Cl. 238-327) The present invention is directed to the provision of an improved rail anchor device adapted to grip the base portion of a railway rail in a position to abut against a tie plate or other element of the rail supporting structure.

A principal object of the invention is to provide a railway rail anchoring device of the above general class adapted to be driven transversely of a rail to its applied position thereon and adapted also to be made of plate metal bent to provide rail gripping jaws which bear edgewise against the top and bottom surfaces of the base portion of the rail and thereby provide a high degree of vertical rigidity, but which, by virtue of certain improved construction hereinafter described will provide resilience at predetermined locations, whereby the rail gripping jaws will yield to accommodate rail base flanges of slightly different thickness and having top surfaces of different slopes.

Plate steel rail anchors as heretofore proposed which include spaced apart recessed flanges positioned for edgewise gripping contact with the top and bottom surfaces of a rail base flange have not been entirely satisfactory,

essary yielding or expansion of the recessed portions of the plate to accommodate rail base flanges which, because of wear of the forming rolls, are imperfectly formed, for example abnormally thick base flanges or those having top surfaces of greater than normal slopes.

A further and more specific object of the invention is to provide improved constructions for-overcoming the fixed rigidity of the rail gripping jaws of plate steel rail anchors of the above general class heretofore proposed and, at the same time. provide the rail gripping jaws with sufficient resilience transversely of the rail to permit the upper jaw to yield sufliciently to accommodate variations'in the thickness and slope of rail base flanges.

According to the present invention, the improved rail anchor device includes a body portion of channel configuration having spaced apart side flanges which provide the desired vertical. rigidity to resist vertical pres sures encountered in service and which will have flat contact with the bottom face of the rail base throughout the entire width of the base. At one end of the body the side flanges thereof are of sufiicient height to extend above the ra-il base flange and are recessed to receive an edge portion of said base flange in a manner to exert a strong grip on the top and bottom surfaces thereof at 7 one side of the rail. The upper and lower edge surfaces of the rail base receiving recesses are formed to bear flat against the inclined top surface and the horizontal bottom surface of said base flange. The outer regions of the side flanges of the anchor which define the rail gripping jaws thereof are provided with correspondingly formed vertical striking faces for receiving the impact force of an implement, for example a track maul or sledge, used to drive the anchor device to its applied position on the rail. The outer region of the spaced apart jaws, that is to say the portion between the recesses of the jaws and the outer-end of the anchor, are provided with a series of vertically extending corrugations which provide sufiicient resilience in the region of the upper jaws in a direction transversely of the rail, to permit the 'since the vertical rigidity of such flanges prevents the mo said, jaws to accommodate rail base flanges of abnormal thickness or having other imperfections incident .to the normal weardown of the rail forming rolls. I The said corrugations 'are formed to provide greater yieldability and resilience attheir upper ends than at their lower ends so that the spaced apart upper jaws will their in an upward arcuate direction to increase the effec tive opening of the rail base flange receiving recesses and to thereby accommodate r-ail base flanges of abnormal thickness and its having top surfaces of abnormally steep slopes. The arcuate yielding of said upper jaws makes it practical to form. the anchor device with a vertically rigid under-rail body portion which will resist all vertical pressures to which it may be subjected in service. The said arcuate yielding of the upper jaws during the appl cation of the anchor to a rail, permits the rigid under-rail portion of the anchor body to assume a downwardly inclined position transversely of the rail base until the locking lug-s at the tail end of the body clear the opposite edge of the rail base, whereupon the locking lugs snap over the adjacent edge of the rail base and the rigid body portion assumes its normal flat contact with the bot-tom of the rail base. v

Other objects and advantages of the invention; not at this time enuemarated, will become apparent as the following description ensues.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary plan view showing a base portion of a'railroad rail, aj-tie plate and an underlying crosstie and also showing a rail anchor device constructed according to this invention applied to the said rail base; FIG. 2 is a cross-section taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 1 and showing the rail anchor, tie plate and a portion of the cross-tie in elevation; j

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 2 and showing an end view of the rail anchor in elevation and illustrating the manner in which the anchor abuts against an end face of a tie plate; and t I FIG. 4 is a plan view illustrating the configuration of the flat blanks and their arrangement for shearing from flat plate material. 7 s I Referring first to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 of the drawings:' 10 designates the base portion of a railroad rail, 11 an under.- lying cross-tie, and 12 designates a tie plate interposed between the rail base 10 and the top surface of the crosstie. The tie plate may be of conventional construction. In the drawings it is shown as shoulders 13-43 which define the width ofa rail base seat and also provide lateral abutments for opposite sides of the rail base. Thetie plate is shown herein as spaced inwardly from the vertical face 14 of the cross-tie so as to illustrate the adaptability of the improved anchor device for use with the tie plate arrangement wherein a recess 15 exists between the top face of the cross-tie and the bottom face of the rail base. However, the vertical face 16 of the tie plate may, if desired, be positioned flush with the vertical face 14 of the cross-tie or it may project outwardly therefrom without affecting the functional operation of 'the anchor device. Rail fastening spikes 17 of conventional form are driven into the cross-tie through spike openings 18 in the tie plate. There is preferably a'slight clearance 19 (see FIG. 2) between the inclined top surfaces 20-200 of the rail base and the bottom faces of the heads of the rail fastening spikes 17 so as to permit the normal vertical wave movement of the rail independently of the tie plate and spike heads during the passing of traffic over the railf I The improved rail anchor device is made from blanks sheared from steel plate material (see FIG. 4). The com pleted anchor device includes a channel-shaped body porprovided with spaced apart 7 tion 21 which extends across beneath the rail base in the said recess existing between the top face of the cross-tie 11 and the bottom surface of the rail base. The said channel body portion includes a bottom web 22 and vertically extending side flanges 23, 230 which extend upwardly from the web 22 and bear edgewise against the bottom surface 24 of the rail base 16. At one end of the body portion 21 the side flanges 23, 23a extend upwardly beyond the top surface of the adjacent rail base flange and are recessed as indicated at 25, 25a (see FIGS. 2 and 4) to provide a pair of upper jaws 26, 26a and an underlying pair of lower jaws 27, 27a. The edges of said recesses 25, 25a defining the upper jaws 26, 26a bear flat against the top surface of the rail base flange 2% for the major portion of the length of said jaws 25, 25a. The vertical edges 28, 28a of the recesses 25, 25a are spaced a slight distance from the edge surface 29 of the rail base and serve as stop surfaces to prevent the driving of the anchor device beyond its applied position. The said vertical edges 28--28a of the recesses 25, 25a join with the inclined lower faces of the upper jaws 26, 26a and with the horizontal faces of the lower jaws 27, 27a with curved portions 30, 31 which provide clearances above and below the longitudinal corners of the rail base to which the jaws 26, 26a are applied.

In the regions of the outer ends of the rail gripping jaws 26, 26a the said jaws are provided with a series of vertical corrugations including a relatively long central corrugation 32 and shorter corrugations 33, 34 at opposite sides thereof. The long central corrugation 32 projects inwardly into the space between the jaws 26, 26a and therefore may extend downwardly to a position below the top surface of the adjacent tie plate without interfering with the flat contact of the side faces of the anchor device against the tie plate. The shorter corrugations 33, 34 project outwardly from the side planes of the outer surfaces of the jaws 26, 2611, but their lower extremities terminate at 10- cations above the top surface of the adjacent tie plate shoulder 13 so as to not interfere with the provision of a flat face-to-face contact between a side flange of the rail anchor and the adjacent end face 16 of the tie plate. It will be also observed in this connection that the recesses 25, 25a, being formed by shearing operations as distinguished from bending, avoids all lateral displacement of metal and thereby insures the provision of flat outside faces for abutting engagement with the tie plate. The flat face bearing of a side flange 23 or 23a against the flat face 16 of the tie plate together with the height of the side flanges minimize the frictional wear on both the tie plate and the rail anchor. The said flat face-to-face contact between the tie plate and the rail anchor also makes for uniform distribution of rail creeping pressures to the rail spikes at opposite sides of the rail base, a condition which is not obtainable if the rail anchor device bears against the tie plate at one side only of the rail.

The end of the anchor body at the side of the rail opposite that engaged by the jaws 26, 26a is formed with spaced apart upstanding lugs 35, 36 which, when the anchor device reaches its applied position, serve to lock the anchor on the rail. Preferably the side flanges of the under-rail portion of the anchor are tapered to decrease in height from the rail gripping jaws to the locking lugs 34, 35 so that the height of the side flanges 23, 23a plus the height of the locking lugs 35, 36 will be less than the height of the space 15 intervening between the bottom of the rail base and the top of the cross-tie. This construction, in addition to providing the desired clearance for passage of the locking lugs beneath the rail base and within the clearance space 15, also provides the web 22 with a suitable inclination for draining any water that may find entrance into the channel portion of the anchor device.

In order to facilitate application of the anchor device to a rail, the outer edges 37, 37 of the rail gripping jaws 26, 26a are defined by vertical faces adapted to receive the impact force of a sledge or track maul ordinarily used to drive the anchor device transversely of the rail to its applied position. During the application of the anchor device to a rail the vertical corrugations 32, 33 and 34 provide the upper jaws 26, 26:! with sutficient resilience to permit them to yield in a vertical arcuate direction such as indicated by the feathered arrows in FIG. 2 of the drawlugs and thereby expand the recesses 25, 25a sufficiently to accommodate abnormally thick rail base flanges as well as those having top surfaces of abnormally steep slopes. The resilience provided by said vertical corrugations not only permit the necessary expansion of the recesses 25, 25a to fit rail base flanges having the above mentioned imperfections but also permit the necessary yielding of the upper jaws to relieve the stresses thereon when the under-rail body portion of the anchor assumes an angular position such as indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 2 during the movement of the anchor device transversely of the rail to its applied position. The resilience provided by the said corrugations 32, 33, 34 produces a reaction, which when the anchor device reaches its applied position on the rail, moves the upper jaws 26, 26a in a direction to cause their gripping edges 39, 39a to move into flat contact with the top inclined surface of the rail base flange 29.

In addition to the vertical pinch grip exerted by the jaws 26, 26a, 27, 270 on the top and bottom surfaces of the rail base, the said jaws, because of the limited surface contact of the jaws with the rail base by reason of the edgewise arrangement of said jaws to the rail base, have a tendency to exert an increased shackle gripping action on the top and bottom surface of the rail base when the anchor device is pressed against the tie plate during the presence of lengthwise creeping pressure on the rail.

Referring now to FIG. 4 which shows a preferred layout of the blanks for the purpose of shearing them from a sheet of plate metal: The lines on which the blanks are sheared from the flat plate are indicated in full lines. The blank after being sheared from the plate is heated to a bending temperature and bent along the dotted lines 45, 4-0 to bring the portions of the blank at opposite sid-es of the dot-dash lines into vertical positions to provide the side flanges of the anchor device. The bottom web 22 of the anchor device comprises the portion of the blank existing between the dotted lines 40, 40.

From the above disclosure it will be seen that the present invention provides a plate steel anchor device in which the rail gripping jaws thereof are positioned for edgewise contact with the rail, and the under-rail portion is maintained vertically rigid with flat contact against the bottom surface of the rail base, yet the rail gripping jaw portion of the anchor is corrugated in a manner to provide desired resilience to permit the upper jaw portion of the anchor to yield to accommodate abnormally thick rail base flanges and to also permit the vertically rigid under-rail portion of the anchor to assume an inclined position transversely of the rail during the applying movement of the anchor to its operative position on a rail.

Iclaim: J

1. A rail anchor comprising a steel plate provided with a vertically rigid body portion for extending across beneath the base portion of a railway rail and arranged for edgewise engagement with the bottom surface thereof, an upwardly projecting portion at one end of said body arranged for edgewise engagement with the rail and recessed to provide upper and lower jaws adapted to be driven transversely of the rail into gripping engagement with the top and bottom surfaces of the rail base at one side of the rail, and means comprising a series of corrugations formed in said upwardly projecting portion of the anchor at a location intermediate said recess and the adjacent outer end of the anchor body and extending parallel to said outer end of saidbody with their lower ends terminating short of the lower edge of said upwardly projecting portion and with their upper ends opening through the upper edge of said upwardly projecting portion so as to facilitate greater arcuate yielding of the upper jaw relative to the lower jaw in the region of the upper ends of said corrugations than at the lower ends of said corrugations.

2. A rail anchor according to claim 1 characterized in that the anchor device is adapted to abut against an :end face of a tie plate and in that said group of corrugations includes at least one corrugation which protrudes outwardly from a side of said upwardly projecting portion which is remote from the tie plate and extends below the top face of the tie plate, when the anchor is in its applied position on a rail.

3. A rail anchor according to claim 2 characterized in that at least one of said vertically extending corrugations protrudes outwardly from the tie plate engaging face of the anchor body with the lower end of such corrugation positioned above the tie plate.

4. A rail anchor according to claim 3 characterized in that the rigid body of the anchor device is formed to provide flat contact with the bottom surface of the base throughout the width of the base and is formed at the end of the body remote from said jaws with a locking lug for engaging an edge face of the base portion of the rail at the side opposite to that engaged by said jaws.

5. A rail anchor according to claim .4 characterized in that the vertically rigid body portion is channel-shape in cross-section and includes a bottom web and spaced apart side flanges the latter of which bear edgewise against the bottom of the rail base and either of which may abut against a tie plate, and in that each flange is formed at one end of the body with an upwardly projecting portion which is recessed to provide spaced apart pairs of upper and lower rail gripping jaws, and means for rendering said upper jaws yieldable in an arcuate upward direction relative to the lower jaws comprising a series of corrugations formed in each of the above upwardly projecting portions of the side flanges.

6. A rail anchor according to claim 5 wherein the corrugated area of each upwardly projecting portion of the side flanges includes a central corrugation which protrudes into the channel of the anchor device and a corrugation at either side thereof which protrudes outwardly from the outer face of its associated upwardly projecting portion and terminates at a location above the tie plate, whereby either side face of the under-rail body portion of the anchor may have flat bearing contact throughout its length with the said tie plate.

References (Iited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,609,287 Blair Dec. 7, 1926 1,722,108 Norwood July 23, 1929 2,827,240 Steele et a1. Mar. 18, 1958 

